Overview
For today’s #WhoWeAreWednesday we feature an interview with Lewis McMurran. McMurran is a principal at A&M Advisory LLC, a Washington-based company providing asset management and other financial services to individuals, firms, and business owners. McMurran previously served as a board member of the Washington Career and Technical Education Foundation. He also served as chief operating officer and board member of MaxSet Worldwide Incorporated, a start-up developing search software which won a federal SBIR grant in 2017. From 2018 to 2021 he co-managed the state-wide Future of Work Task Force for Washington, which made recommendations to state legislature about methods for ushering workers and businesses toward future work opportunities. He has served as a board member of AI&Faith for nearly three years.
How would you describe your experience with AI?
My first experience with AI was interacting with a former roommate who got a degree in AI from UC Berkeley in 1983. I did not understand much about it then. A few decades later I found myself in a software start-up where machine learning was a major part of the software, which was developed to find information in documents.
I have been involved with public policy for a large portion of my career, much of it around technology. In the last few years AI has been a topic of discussion by policymakers, often grounded in ethical issues. While I managed the Future Of Work project for the state of Washington, the use of AI in government came up in discussion and research but was not deeply explored.
How would you describe your faith background?
I grew up in a very Catholic household, attended Catholic grade school, was an altar boy, went to an all-male Catholic high school, and attended Georgetown University. After college, I was an apostate until 1993 when I was born again on Palm Sunday at a Presbyterian Church I was attending at the time in Lacey, Washington. I have been attending a non-denominational Christian church in Federal Way for over 20 years. I read the Bible almost daily and prayer is a very important part of my life. I am a firm believer in tithing.
What led to your interest in the intersection of AI and faith?
Probably like most of the rest of us, my involvement with AI&F started with a contact from David Brenner, the founder of AI&Faith. I attended an event where the report I co-authored for the state of Washington, “The Future of Work”, was featured. An AI&Faith member was at the event, wrote about our work for a newsletter. Following the publication, David reached out to me to gauge my interest in the organization.
Why are you involved with AI&F?
When I understood it was a faith-led consortium attempting to unite people of faith around how AI is developed and deployed, I was both inspired and interested to learn more and get involved. I think AI&F has a unique role to play as a convener and a connector between and among the important faith traditions and those deeply involved in advanced technology. Like most advanced technologies today, AI has the potential to solve big problems, while also causing even bigger ones. It is about those who are involved in the development, use cases, deployment, and responsibility for AI where we need to focus our efforts.
How does AI&F affect your work outside the organization?
At this point AI&F is somewhat siloed in my life and does not necessarily impact how I work or go about the activities of my day to day life. However, I do see a world full of lost souls who need Jesus Christ in their hearts. There is a great need to connect AI&F to the larger Christian community, who by and large are not aware of how advanced technologies are being used, or how they could be used, for both good and evil. If AI&F can bring awareness to more people of faith about these issues, we could call that success.
What open problems in AI are you most interested in?
The biggest issue I see, especially for Christians, is the issue of identity. There is a concerted effort to confuse people about who they really are. AI is being used to promote this underhanded effort. We must be aware of these efforts to strip us of our God-given identities in Him.
While advanced technologies, including AI, have enormous potential to glorify God and benefit people, too often these technologies are used in just the opposite way. AI&Faith can and must be a spiritual bulwark in the inexorable move toward greater use of AI.
There are many more open issues for people of faith in this ever-changing, digitally transforming world. We must remember, embrace, and enhance our humanity during this time. We must remember that, ultimately, we serve God and praise His name above all others. Thank you for the opportunity to share with you.
Acknowledgments
A big thanks to Lewis McMurran for his time to carry out this interview. Thanks to Emily Wenger and Marcus Schwarting for proofreading, editing, and publishing this work.
